BoaterRated and Arbitration Resolution Services Announce Affiliation Agreement

Wow, it seems like forever since we’ve been here. Fortunately we have something good for you. We think this is a tremendous benefit to our Partner Businesses and to their customers.

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Contacts:

L. Carl Schellbach, Jr. – 1-877-292-7440, carl@boaterrated.com
Thomas P. Weber – 1-888-934-1777, tweber@arbresolutions.com

BoaterRated and Arbitration Resolution Services Announce Affiliation Agreement
Stuart, FL., August 12, 2013 – BoaterRated, LLC, which operates the leading independent marine business review website–where boaters rate and review boating businesses–and Arbitration Resolution Services (ARS), which has developed the ideal environment for alternative dispute resolution using binding arbitration, today announce that they are teaming up in order to bring a value-added service.

The new service allows BoaterRated Partner Businesses™ to use ARS services at reduced fees for all parties to a dispute.

“BoaterRated.com exists to help the boating community get more enjoyment out of their investment and to help marine providers increase their level of customer service,” said Carl Schellbach, Partner of BoaterRated LLC. “Needless to say, not all boater experiences with providers are great, although many of the not-so-good ones are generally resolved when the provider’s attention is drawn to an issue. The Partner Business feature of a 14-day Reconciliation Period has resulted in a good number of amicable resolutions. We’re always on the lookout for ways to help boaters obtain the best products and services available. So, for situations that are not resolved during the Reconciliation Period, ARS offers an attractive path to a fair resolution and we’re glad to be able to offer it on terms equally favorable to all parties in a dispute.”

Tom Weber, CEO of Arbitration Resolution Services, adds, “Litigation is always a last-ditch and usually overly expensive effort to resolve disagreements. Arbitration offers a far less expensive and less adversarial solution to problems that can arise, and indeed have arisen in my own boating experience. ARS is an efficient way to accomplish the process, and at far less cost than hiring lawyers and court time to resolve an issue that usually involves less money than the legal fees and court costs would total.”

BoaterRated.com and Arbitration Resolution Services are offering a reduction in ARS’s standard fee schedule to businesses enrolled in BoaterRated’s Partner Business Program™. Mr. Schellbach says “We’re always seeking to add benefits for Partner Businesses to help them better serve the boating community, we see this as a great addition to the portfolio.”  Mr. Weber goes on to say “We share BoaterRated’s commitment to objectivity and fairness and for that reason we are glad to offer a discount to all sides of a dispute that comes to ARS for resolution. BoaterRated Partner Businesses demonstrate their commitment to a high level of customer service, and that commitment really shows when things get a little tougher and the business wants to make things right as efficiently as possible for all.”

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About BoaterRated:

BoaterRated, LLC owns and operates BoaterRated.com, an easy-to-use, independent review website where boaters can offer ratings and reviews of local boating businesses, and where those businesses can easily enhance their “get the word out” efforts. For more information visit http://www.BoaterRated.com and explore!

About Arbitration Resolution Services:

ARS provides first-quality easily facilitated online arbitration services to companies and individuals. ARS is creating a seismic shift from the expense and hassles of courtroom litigation to online arbitration using innovative software technology that makes online arbitration accessible. ARS makes the resolution of disputes accurate, quick, and cost effective! For more information about ARS and the arbitration process, visit http://www.ArbResolutions.com .

Too much fun!

Boy, do we have fun here at sleepy BoaterRated Central! In order to raise the awareness of what we’re doing with the BoaterRated.com site – i.e. providing a platform for boaters to share reviews of their favorite (and sometimes not-so-favorite) boating businesses, we produced and ran a couple of ads on one of our favorite TV shows – Ship Shape TV. We have noticed that more people are looking at the site, and we’d like to encourage marine businesses to implore their customers to tell their fellow boaters about the service they received by writing a review on BoaterRated.

Anyway, we had a great time making the spots, and we hope that if you didn’t see them, you’ll take a look and get a chuckle out of them.  This one is something of a tribute to the 70th anniversary of a famous movie, the other is a tribute to all those professionals out there trying to save us.  We hope you enjoy them!

Time to start thinking about preparing!

With the heat waves and droughts that are gripping large parts of the country, it’s sometimes difficult to remember that it won’t always be this way. Is it time to start breaking out the Egg Nog? Well, not quite, but perhaps it is indeed time to start thinking about what you want to do with your boat in a few short weeks.

NOT a Florida scene! Thanks to drstressor at fishsniffer.com for the photo.

There are hundreds of articles out there on things to do to winterize your boat, and soon the magazines will start recycling some.  Some in the northern climes prefer to do as we in the very far south do – continue to use the boat! OK, those are the hard-core types. Some, however, do continue waterborne sports in the colder months, but use different equipment, i.e. duck blinds for hunters, or various small frostbite classes for sailboat racing (which is what chased me to Florida in the first place!), but these folks do have to consider what to do with their summertime craft as well.

As you start to think about what went right or wrong with the service you received last season while winterizing your boat, take a moment to share your experiences with your fellow boaters on BoaterRated.com.  If you don’t find the provider that performed (or didn’t!) for you last year, don’t hesitate to add them – it’s a short and easy process.

The more that’s objectively written about various yards and service centers, the more valuable the resource is to your fellow boaters. We all know the conversations that go on at marinas and waterfront bars about service providers, share the information and the conversation to more of your boating friends on the Virtual Dockside!

Things are Picking Up in the Boating Business!

With all the horrible and negative news we run across every day, and have been for a while, there’s a glimmer of things picking up in the world of boating. It’s been a long time coming, but there is evidence that things are getting better.

Everybody knows of the disasters the marine industry has seen, there are headlines galore over the past couple of years chronicling it – just ask and I’ll send a bunch!  And how much fun has it been to fill up the gas tank on your boat recently? Folks are worried about their jobs, their spouse’s job, their boss’s job, where’s the money going to come from? As one of the ultimate leisure activities, boating is one of the first things to go when times get (or threaten to get) tough.

So I notice last week that the assets of the Hunter Marine Group – many venerable names in the marine business such as Hunter sailboats, Luhrs, Silverton, and Mainship powerboats – were successfully sold out of of their bankruptcy proceedings. That the creditors didn’t object to the asset sales tells me that the price was considered fair. Now that I think about it (in order to write this!), the buyers of those assets have invested quite a bit into these assets, and have committed to continuing the manufacture and sale of these branded boats.

I get e-newsletters every day that used to be called “trade rags” back when they were on paper. But the series of industry stories in them has been getting brighter nearly every day. Just today, it was noted that Maverick Boats, makers of Maverick, Hewes, Pathfinder and Cobia boats, has increased production yet again, effectively doubling where they were a year ago. Not only is this good news for the Maverick people, they’ve also hired a bunch more folks to make all these boats, a story we don’t hear too often these days.

To get a little deeper into it, we visit Wall Street analysts who keep their eyes on public companies to see if their stock or bonds are worth investing in. Brunswick Corporation, the worlds largest manufacturer of boats and motors, recently had very favorable investment opinions reiterated by some major investment companies, citing their increased market share (as smaller manufacturers either close or Brunswick buys them!) and a stronger-than-expected boating business. To me, this reflects very well on the overall market.

All of which is to say, it’s an exciting time to be anywhere near boating! There are new products coming out all the time, and it seems the wallets of those looking to get into the lifestyle are cracking open a bit. It’s still mighty competitive out there, and buyers have many new tools to use to help them get the most out of their dollars (such as BoaterRated.com!), so it’s possible there’s more shakeout to come, but we’re mighty excited to be part of the big comeback!  We hope you’re a part of it too!

Where’d THIS review come from? or … Another Reason to be a Partner Business!

We had an incident that goes to show the value of being a BoaterRated Partner Business. We were heading out of the country (and thus out of our usual constant contact – more on this in another post!) and we saw a review come in for one of our Partner Businesses.  This particular business has a large number of positive, even glowing, reviews, and this one was pretty awful.  It recounted the rude behavior of a salesperson, the withholding of a licensing service, and the refusal to help with the location of a part.

As a Partner Business, one of the benefits offered is the 14 Day Reconciliation Period before a poor review gets posted to afford the business and the customer an opportunity to work out whatever differences caused the poor review.  Usually this ends up with a more satisfied customer and a better relationship.

We reached out to the reviewer to inform him of this policy and that the business would be reaching out to him during this time.  While the email we sent went to a valid email, we never heard back from the reviewer.

Meanwhile, the business interviewed the entire staff – a pretty easy task in their case as it’s a husband and wife team with one or two part time employees – and nobody could recall such an incident.  They too reached out to the reviewer to see what was what, and they too got no response.

Numerous suspicions developed that seemed like plot line for an episode of Law & Order. They did some further digging into the sender of the email, and this turned up some details about the reviewer that caused doubt.  They shared those all their suspicions with us, and the case for this being a valid review was quickly eroding.  So we reached out to the reviewer one last time, and still got no response.  We decided that this review was not a valid review, and thus have not published it.

The lessons to be learned here are that even though these reviews can get posted anywhere, being pro-active in your on-line reputation management can minimize or negate any damage that could be done by a negative review.  Had this business not been a Partner Business, they would have had little or no control over what went up on BoaterRated. That they are a Partner Business and use BoaterRated as their on-line referral network, the volume of positive reviews would have drowned out the noise of one not-so-good review.  Since they use BoaterRated.com for their referral and review site, reviews posted elsewhere don’t hold the same validity – reviewers know that their review posted on BoaterRated are monitored by the business and any feedback they can offer will be noted and acted upon.  And potential customers know that what’s said about a Partner Business is part of that business’s customer service efforts.

Action item – sign up to be a BoaterRated.com Partner Business today!

 

Introducing the new, welcoming look at BoaterRated.com

This week we rolled out a new “landing page” for BoaterRated.com, which is the first page people see when they type in our web address. The goal of this new look is to make it simple for visitors to quickly understand what the Virtual Dockside^TM is all about – the place to go for information that can help them maintain and enhance their boats.. From this new page they’ll be able to jump to the sign in page, a set of tutorials designed to help them get started using the Virtual Dockside^TM, or to the home page that we’re all used to. For you regular users of the site, you can bookmark the home page, or click straight through to it to see the latest boater reviews, boating events, and news from our blog.

Visit BoaterRated.com and check out the new landing page. We always appreciate hearing your feedback, so drop us a line or a comment and let us know what you think.

If you’ve got friends who are boaters, or who own or work for a marine business, help us spread the word about BoaterRated.com by sending them a link or by emailing them using the “Invite Friends” feature when you’re signed into the Virtual Dockside.

Just as many of you are working hard to get your boats ready for the 2012 boating season, we’re working hard to update and grow the marine business listings on the Virtual Dockside^TM and to get the word out about our completely independent, unbiased platform for boater reviews. Stay tuned for more information about our progress in future blog posts. And, as always, happy boating and fair winds!

Our Guest Blog on the Boating Industry Website

If you own or work for a marine business, check out our blog post New Year’s Resolution: Don’t Fear Online Reviews that was published on the Boating Industry website. We still hear boating business owners express trepidation about the prospect of being reviewed online by their customers. In our Boating Industry Guest Blog post, we provide some insights into why you can leave your fears behind and resolve to embrace online reviews in 2012.

If you need even more convincing, check out our post A Milestone – or a Dispute Resolved. Whatever your attitude toward  online reviews, your customers are talking about you. Use the power of the web to help your fans generate positive word of mouth about your business and don’t sweat over the possibility of a negative review. A negative review, if you ever get one, is an opportunity both to improve your customer service going forward and to win a customer for life, turning him or her into your best advocate.

Another Boater / Provider Resolution?

Once again, the power of word-of-keyboard exhibits itself!

A boater was somewhat dissatisfied with the service he had received and did what we hope becomes the natural thing, he wanted to tell other boaters about the provider’s shortcomings on BoaterRated.com.  As we’re promoting our BoaterRated Partner Business Program, we decided that first we’d ask the reviewer if it was ok for us to offer the provider one of the benefits of the Program, the ability for the provider to correct the situation that caused the poor review prior to the review going live.  The reviewer agreed to a seven day window (instead of the automatic 14 day window), so we contacted the provider and told him what was going on and what his options were.

This badge is displayed by businesses that focus on Customer Service!

Now, this provider was not enrolled in the Partner Business Program (yet!), in fact had not even claimed his business on BoaterRated.  I’m not sure who did list it, it could have been the reviewer, it could have been somebody else, it could have even been one of us.  Anybody can list a business on BoaterRated, however only the owner or a representative can claim it and receive any of the benefits that BoaterRated provides.

But we called him anyway, and he went into some detail of the circumstances of the issue.  We described how we could help him work out the miscommunication with the customer, but we can’t do it directly – it’s HIS customer!  BoaterRated provides the ability to converse, but can’t take part in the conversation directly.  Now, if he claimed his business he could have responded to the review on BoaterRated, and if he was enrolled in the Partner Buainess Program he could respond to the customer directly (should the customer allow) prior to the review being posted for all to see.  So we offered the Partner Business benefit to the business and customer to help them out.

As it happened, the provider didn’t want anything negative floating around on the internet, so he contacted the customer. They seem to have worked out whatever misunderstanding there was, and the customer emailed us to pull the review.  Our hope is that the customer ends up being satisfied (the weather apparently has not been conducive to a sea trial to make sure) and posts a glowing review of the provider for all the world to see, and the provider enrolls in the Partner Business Program to show and enhance his commitment to customer satisfaction.

The lessons we take out of this episode start with the power of the internet to provide information, and the usefulness of a dedicated service to focus on particular areas of information, such as the Virtual Dockside provides to the boating community.  The value we see is in the customer’s ultimate satisfaction and the provider’s good reputation.  Needless to say, we all know customers who will never be satisfied no matter WHAT we do, and there are some providers who don’t have or deserve a good reputation.  But this is where the information focus comes in handy for those in our community.

We look forward to helping boaters get more satisfaction in their favorite recreational pastime, and by helping providers achieve and maintain the reputation they deserve.  Sign in to BoaterRated.com and participate on the Virtual Dockside with us!

 

A Milestone – or A Dispute Resolved!

We here at BoaterRated.com have achieved a milestone.  As you know, the site is still relatively new and undiscovered, but we had a boater and an equipment supplier find us last week!

We saw a review go up for a business that is not yet a BoaterRated Partner Business (for some unknown reason!), and it was not, shall we say, complimentary.  The reviewer had placed an order, received the product, and found it unsuitable for the purpose.  He tried to resolve the situation, but was disregarded by the service department at the supplier.  So, as we hoped, he documented the series of events on BoaterRated, advising his fellow travelers on the Virtual Dockside to avoid this business.  This is as much a purpose of BoaterRated.com as singing the praises of a service or product supplier is, making it a good source for boaters to both find good providers and avoid poor ones.

But the story is just starting here.

Within hours, I get an email from the provider seeking to resolve this.  Well, enrolling in the Partner Business Program is a start, thought I, but I informed her that I would ask if the reviewer is open to their contact to try and resolve the issues.  As always, until I’m told otherwise by the author the review stands.  That the business contacted us quickly is a lesson in effective online reputation management, which we promote for businesses enrolled (for free!) in the Partner Business Program.  This provider is already sensitive to customer service.

I contacted the reviewer by email and asked if he would allow me to give the provider his contact information.  He agreed, I did, and he emailed me back in a day asking me to pull the review as the provider has responded that they would work to fix things.  I entered a “placeholder” review that could easily be reversed if the customer was NOT happy, and told the boater that I’d pull it when he specifically told me to and all would probably appreciate it if he wrote a followup review extolling the customer service focus of this specific provider.

The boater submitted a favorable review the following day.  His situation was made right, the provider has said they are taking steps to ensure this kind of thing never comes up again, we pulled the poor review for good and posted the latest one, and all seem to be quite happy.

This is most certainly a milestone for us.  Our goal is to provide a platform for disputes such as this to be brought to light and resolved amicably.  Boaters spend a lot of time and money enjoying their passion, service providers spend a lot of time and money to make that passion easier to enjoy.  Anything that can make that equation easier seems that it would be useful, and we have one under our belt.

With many more to come.  Come join us on the Virtual Dockside and enjoy your boating passion more!

What we’ve been up to!

Please check out the BoaterRated site for some of the other improvements in addition to the release below.  We’re very excited about this, and believe the program and improvments will make it easier for boaters to find quality boating service providers in their area, which will enable what we all want, and that’s MORE TIME ON THE WATER!!!!!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Contact: L. Carl Schellbach, Jr.
1-877-292-7440, carl@boaterrated.com

BoaterRated Launches Partner Business Program

Stuart, FL., October 4, 2011 — BoaterRated, LLC, which operates the leading independent marine business review website where boaters rate and review boating businesses, today announced the launch of its BoaterRated Partner Business Program. The Program offers marine business owners valuable tools for managing their business’s referral network and online reputation at no charge, in addition to enabling users to find service providers that are focused on customer satisfaction.

“There are three main benefits to enrolling as a BoaterRated Partner Business,” said Carl Schellbach, Partner of BoaterRated LLC.  “One is that all reviews of a business are sent to the boating business owner for easier awareness and management of their online reputation.  Another benefit is that BoaterRated will provide tools and tips in a new “Partners Only” newsletter to help marine business owners build customer referral programs that attract new boating customers.

“The greatest advantage to being a BoaterRated Partner Business—and to doing business with one,” continued Mr. Schellbach “is a 14 day reconciliation period for reviews submitted with fewer than three stars. In the case of such reviews, we alert the BoaterRated Partner and ask if they’d like to contact the reviewer prior to the review being published. If so, we get in touch with the reviewer to determine if they’re open to the contact. If they are, the business owner has the opportunity to make it right with the customer prior to the review going live.  Again, the only one who can pull or alter a review is the author. We offer no assurances other than that BoaterRated maintains its status as an objective source of reviews of local marine businesses that can help users of boating services find the good ones.”

The BoaterRated Partner Business Program is available to boating businesses that claim their business listings on BoaterRated.com and point their customers to the site’s “Virtual Dockside” to post reviews. To enroll in the Program, a marine business owner or representative need only create a free user account on BoaterRated.com, list and claim their business, and request enrollment. Once the claim request is approved and the BoaterRated Partner Business badge posted on its website, the business becomes a BoaterRated Partner Business eligible for the program’s benefits.

By enrolling as a BoaterRated Partner Business, marine businesses exhibit a commitment to customer service and openness to customer feedback. Boaters can feel confident that when they see the BoaterRated Partner Business badge, they’re dealing with a business that values its customers and works hard to exceed expectations.

Additional benefits to visitors to the Virtual Dockside and BoaterRated Partner Business Program will be offered as the technology becomes available.

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About BoaterRated:
BoaterRated, LLC owns and operates BoaterRated.com, the leading independent marine business review website where boaters can offer ratings and reviews of local boating businesses across the United States and beyond, and where those businesses can easily enhance their “get the word out” efforts. For more information visit http://www.BoaterRated.com and explore!